Mikayla Wright

For my essay I was allowed to choose my own prompt and write from there. I decided to write about my experiences and growth through my participation in San Juan Mountain SOLEs.

Colleges I am applying to:

Southwestern University

Evergreen State College

Colorado State University

University of Colorado, Boulder

University of Puget Sound

Fort Lewis College

My First college essay

My hips scream as the blood vessels are broken from the 45 pounds of weight that is pressing my body into the Earth. My purple bandana holds back the stinging hairs that refuse to be controlled after not being cleaned for the past six days. Though I have live in the beautiful city of Durango, Colorado located among the San Juan National Forest and the Weminuche Wilderness in the Rocky Mountains, I never truly understood the language of the land or power of my own voice until the summer of my sophomore year of high school.

Being a woman in our society I have always felt the pressing, negative norms that I am supposed to follow and I have often felt discouraged to push myself into powerful positions that are ‘masculine’. In schools and through rare inspirational media, they try to teach us how to we can aspire to be great woman in this world, but honestly it doesn’t really work. A few images of women showing how confident they are in their own skin versus the hundreds of pictures of perfectly skinned women hardly makes an impact on how we as young women view ourselves. There is so much more to power and self understanding that I was unable to gain through media.

In the spring of 2015, Rachel Landis and Ashley Carruth had an idea for a program that would help establish confidence and community in young women. By June of 2015, fifteen young high school women had signed up for their program and first backpacking trip with the slightest idea of how much our lives were about to change. By the end of the forty-two miles we had not only transitioned from girls to woman, but from a group to individual leaders capable of finding our own voices in the expansive wilderness. That summer San Juan Mountain SOLEs (Sisters On Leadership Expeditions), was born.

SOLEs is a year long program where we participate in a new activity each month. To ensure that the adventures and projects we are doing are beneficial to each of us, Ashley and Rachel put each of us in charge of deciding what we will be doing and planning out all of the important details Last Fall I helped plan a two night and three day camping trip in Cedar Mesa with my fellow SOLE sister, Emily. Though we managed to outline all the food we would need and figure out where and when we were going, the only thing we didn’t anticipate for was losing both the sun and trail before we exited the canyon after an eight mile hike. We all learned a very valuable lesson that day: nature does not think about how hungry, tired, dehydrated, or cold you are. Out in the wilderness you have to rely on your natural instincts and all stigma and stereotypes are thrown out the window and what is truly important becomes apparent.

Nature is so much more than dirt and uncivilized land. We all raise a white flag in order to preserve and conserve our lands even though many people have never been on a hike where the wheezing of cars and smog dense air was absent. Nature brings out the vulnerability that is usually buried into the cores of our bodies, bringing out our true essences and allowing us to finally feel.

Without the rugged winds that flipped the pages of my journal and lifted my head to admire the untouched land I had conquered, I would never have come to understand the importance of listening to others and trusting in my own abilities. I now see that I am fully capable of standing up and taking care of myself, being a leader to my peers, and I know I have to power to take any role in society.

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